Olfactory impairment is one of the earliest and most common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). According to Braak’s hypothesis on the staging of PD, the olfactory bulb (OB) is considered one of the potential regions where the pathological spread of alpha-synuclein aggregates originates. For these reasons, this region is of great interest for studying the development of neurodegenerative processes in the early stages of PD. In the present study, a whole-transcriptome analysis was performed in the OB of mice using an MPTP-induced model of the early symptomatic stage of PD. A total of 142 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified. An enrichment analysis of these DEGs revealed the following processes: leukocyte adhesion to vascular endothelial cell, detection of chemical stimulus involved in sensory perception, and genitalia development. A total of 9 genes were associated with these processes: Ccl28 , Fut4 , Alox5, Olfr111 , Olfr558 , Gnat2 , Tbx3 , Trp63 , and Foxf2 . Further detailed analysis of gene functions has demonstrated their link to neuroinflammatory and neuroplasticity processes. Given the established link to processes affecting neuronal survival and function, these genes can be considered promising candidate genes for PD.
Semenova et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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